To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. ~Johannes A. Gaertner

At this time last year, I was inching slowly to getting everything ready for our move to Caracas. My husband was already here, so I was juggling my 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM work schedule and picking up/dropping off the kids at a schedule that didn’t make me feel like a neglectful mother. I remember thinking that no matter what, I wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving with them.

Growing up, my family quickly adopted this holiday as a reason to get together and have a blast. My mother (the only sister amongst 6 children living in the same country) always hosted and cooked. The dishes were American inspired, but with a Haitian twist. Over the years, we added more and more American dishes (e.g. cranberry sauce, stuffing, etc.) for those of us with a changing palette.

I would definitely like to continue this tradition with my kids. Although we were only 3 last year – one of whom at like a 2 year-old because, well he was 2 years-old – I wanted to prepare a dinner and sit down to give thanks. I cooked breaded turkey cutlets as opposed to the whole bird and smaller portions of stuffing, candied yams, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. I thought I’d feel silly about doing so much for just the three of us, but when we sat down and the kids seemed to enjoy the change in menu, I was really glad I made the effort.

This year we’re all together, but since we’re so far away from friends and family I sort of still feel alone. I had already started dreading hunting down all the ingredients I needed to make the traditional dishes when I stumbled across this restaurant that’s serving Thanksgiving meals all day on the 25th (Hallelujah ). Hence, we will all be headed there this Thursday to continue our tradition, albeit a bit modified

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

So, I thought I’d bring up how we celebrate the holidays.

For my family, it’s always been about coming together. There were years the kids got a lot of gifts, and there were years where there were only a few. Since my parents did such a good job in teaching me the real reason behind this time of the year, I never really noticed.

I’m trying to teach my children the same thing. My daughter usually only receives a few toys from Santa (even though she usually asks for 20). This year, I told her that the list she is making for Santa needs to be of things that she would like to give to someone else. Of course, this was completely foreign to her and she said she would ask for two of each; that way she’d give one away and keep one.

Teaching her about the importance of giving is critical to me. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about children who are starving in many places in the world. Or, about the families who are forced to live on less than $1 a day. I know that there are many people out there who think the same way that I do, but as an immigrant from an impoverished country, my motivation is coming from eye witness encounters.

So, if I haven’t depressed you too much , please share some of the traditions that you have for celebrating the holidays. Do they relate more to your family or your culture? How do you think growing up in an immigrant family has shaped the way you celebrate the holidays?

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